Let's raise a toast to USL and say "hic hic hurray'!

That's the power of good news, especially when it comes from a source as "spirited' as the United Spirits Limited (USL), the flagship company of the United Breweries Limited (UBL) Group which announced that it successfully sold a whopping 100 million cases for the fiscal year ended March 31 and filled the Indian coffers with Rs 21,200 crore. Isn't that some spirit-lifting news in such financially trying times? Nobody would mind the "sweet' hangover either!

The group also announced that in same period it has sold more than 7.8 million hectolitres of beer, which is equivalent to over 100 million cases. Delighted at this, the king of good times, Dr Vijay Mallya, Chairman of the UB Group, stated the Kingfisher brand is rapidly progressing in the direction of becoming the icon of a new vibrant and emerging India.

With that achievement USL becomes globally positioned as the second-largest spirits company, dislodging Paris-headquartered Pernod Ricard, volume-wise. The UB Group's alcobev businesses had a retail sales value of Rs 38,200 crores in the same period. The master spirit-makers have also created new history in the world of beverage alcohol by selling 740 million cases in about a quarter of a century!

"We have done extremely well, despite the economic slowdown this year," said the King of good times Mallya, while sharing his happiness at the barrels' good biz, and walked down memory lane when it all began as a three-million case company. Attributing the success to the "sheer dedication and commitment to the vision of becoming the best in the business", he said that it is certain that additional sales in the next financial year will take the group to the No. 1 position globally".

The USL has a 59% market share in the Indian spirits industry which is today pegged at 236 million cases. It has also outclassed its competitors globally by growing 14% in all its brands while the world's top 100 spirits brands collectively grew by only 1%. Not only this, but the success is made more heady with the realization that it comes at a time when 18 of the top 25 global premium brands lost their zing!

The Bangalore-based Rs 6500 crore (FY 09) spirits arm of the UB Group, United Spirits, is setting the company's growth on a new trajectory that will be driven by aggressive innovation, world class marketing programs and state-of the art manufacturing facilities to move up the value chain for premium spirits consumption. With an eye on the potentially young market that will mature to drinking buddies in five years, the company recently acquired Tern Distilleries in AP and set up a Greenfield malt spirit plant in Nasik in Maharashtra, besides undertaking massive capacity augmentation through a robust capital investment plan of over Rs 650 crore.